“Windy” — my newest creation
Thursday, November 19, 2015
This luxurious alpaca yarn is from Carol’s boy. I took the fleece and the fleece from four of my girls to Crooked Fence Alpacas and Mill (located in Mona, Utah) for processing. I had everything except this fleece made in to roving. So glad I did this one to yarn as I don’t have a spinning wheel and can’t use the roving (yet).
The process of turning fleece into yarn isn’t an easy. This coming year, when we actually have the shearing of our flock, I will make sure we take pictures and I go into great detail.
Knitting details: (If you’re not a knitter, you can choose to stop reading if you want.)
Back to the Windy hat. I started off by casting on 49 stitches (54 stitches when I made Mike’s hat). This yarn is bulky. You may need to check a pattern for a different type of yarn. I connected to a circle and placed a marker. Using a size 11 circular needle (purchased at Kamille’s in West Jordan), I did a knit one, pearl one, until I liked the length of the band (about 1.75 inches). I switched to larger needles (13, also from Kamille’s) and did a straight “knitting in the round” until I liked the length (about 7 inches from the start of the hat). The last round I placed a marker every nine stitches (ok, I know that 49 divided by 9 doesn’t come out evenly, but it still turns out great).
On Mike’s hat, I went right to the decrease mode. Knitting seven stitches, knitting two together, and continued that until the round ended. The next round, I knitted six stitches and then two together. You get the idea. At the end I knitted two together. I switched to double pointed needles when it got too hard for circulars, and at the end, when I had about ten stitches, I cut the yarn with about ten inches of a tail, used a needle to slip through the last stitches, pulled it tight, pulled it to the inside of the hat, tied a knot or two, and then wove the last of the yarn through the inside of the hat, leaving no trace.
For the “Windy” hat, I basically did the same with the decrease, EXCEPT I did a regular knit row without decreasing BETWEEN the decrease rows, making the decrease longer and giving me a little floppy back part of the hat. I love the results, and enjoyed wearing the hat yesterday! I’ll be wearing it a LOT this winter, because it is windy here. Very windy.
The process of turning fleece into yarn isn’t an easy. This coming year, when we actually have the shearing of our flock, I will make sure we take pictures and I go into great detail.
Knitting details: (If you’re not a knitter, you can choose to stop reading if you want.)
Back to the Windy hat. I started off by casting on 49 stitches (54 stitches when I made Mike’s hat). This yarn is bulky. You may need to check a pattern for a different type of yarn. I connected to a circle and placed a marker. Using a size 11 circular needle (purchased at Kamille’s in West Jordan), I did a knit one, pearl one, until I liked the length of the band (about 1.75 inches). I switched to larger needles (13, also from Kamille’s) and did a straight “knitting in the round” until I liked the length (about 7 inches from the start of the hat). The last round I placed a marker every nine stitches (ok, I know that 49 divided by 9 doesn’t come out evenly, but it still turns out great).
On Mike’s hat, I went right to the decrease mode. Knitting seven stitches, knitting two together, and continued that until the round ended. The next round, I knitted six stitches and then two together. You get the idea. At the end I knitted two together. I switched to double pointed needles when it got too hard for circulars, and at the end, when I had about ten stitches, I cut the yarn with about ten inches of a tail, used a needle to slip through the last stitches, pulled it tight, pulled it to the inside of the hat, tied a knot or two, and then wove the last of the yarn through the inside of the hat, leaving no trace.
For the “Windy” hat, I basically did the same with the decrease, EXCEPT I did a regular knit row without decreasing BETWEEN the decrease rows, making the decrease longer and giving me a little floppy back part of the hat. I love the results, and enjoyed wearing the hat yesterday! I’ll be wearing it a LOT this winter, because it is windy here. Very windy.